Data Firms Funding Round-Up

Data and analytics firms in the US and Europe continue to attract substantial investments. This week saw funding for Sweden's Mediatool, French community builder Hivebrite and US companies Hayden AI, cross-device iD specialist Fingerprint and sports intelligence pioneer Zelus Analytics.

Stockholm, Sweden-based Mediatool offers a planning and monitoring platform for advertisers, and raised EUR 7m in investment, led by Fairpoint Capital and eEquity. US expansion should result, with an office in New York due to open early next year. The firm has 40 employees and can be found online at www.mediatool.com .

Hivebrite is headquartered in Paris and provides a community and engagement platform through which clients can launch, manage and develop fully branded private communities. The company has just raised $37m in Series B funding for team and platform development, with the round led by Quadrille Capital. Web site www.hivebrite.io .

San Francisco, CA-based Hayden AI secured $53m in Series B funding to expand its artificial intelligence and geospatial analytics services overseas, while strengthening in the US. The round was led by the Drawdown Fund. Its travel and transport data is collected from cameras on commercial, fleet and passenger vehicles and helps improve traffic flow, planning and road safety. Web site www.hayden.ai .

Sports analytics firm Zelus is based in Austin, TX and raised $3.6m in Series A funding, with participation from existing investor RedBird Capital, and new backers including sports analytics pioneer Billy Beane. The money will help further development of its platform, which evaluates, predicts and improves player and team performance for clients in baseball, basketball, hockey, American football, cricket and 'soccer'. Co-founder and CEO Doug Fearing (pictured) says the funds should help the company expand into markets including college, eSports and sports marketing. Web site: www.zelusanalytics.com .

Chicago company Fingerprint added $33m in Series C funding to $44m raised previously for its accurate device intelligence platform, and will look to boost its sales among larger enterprise customers. Its software processes upwards of 90 different signals from browsers, devices and networks to generate a stable and persistent visitor identifier that can be used to understand behavior, reduce fraud and improve user experience. The round was led by Nexus Venture Partners with participation from Uncorrelated Ventures, and the firm is online at www.fingerprint.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.